ArticleSaudi medical journal2016
Prevalence and characterization of occult hepatitis B infection among blood donors in central Saudi Arabia.
Article in Saudi medical journal, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Global prevalence of occult hepatitis B virus infection in HBcAb-positive individuals: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Scientific reports · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of Hepatitis B Virus infection in the Gulf Cooperation Council: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2022Pooled it
- Prevalence of Transfusion-Transmitted Viruses Among Blood Donors at King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2019-2024).New microbes and new infections · 2026Article
- Implications of occult hepatitis B infection for blood donor management: a five-year evaluation from Western Saudi Arabia.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Implications of Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among Blood Donors in Saudi Arabia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The "Grey Zone" in Blood Donor Screening: A Retrospective Study and Proposal for Donor Re-Entry.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Prevalence of transfusion-transmitted infections in Saudi Arabia blood donors: A nationwide, cross-sectional study.Saudi medical journal · 2022Article
- Patterns of Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV Among Blood Donors in Samtah-Jazan Region.Journal of epidemiology and global health · 2022Article
- Hepatitis B virus (HBV) serological patterns among the HBsAg negative hospital attendees screened for immunization.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Occult Hepatitis B Virus Infection Among Blood Donors in the Capital City of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:Frontiers in gastroenterology (Lausanne, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Hepatitis B Virus Molecular Epidemiology, Host-Virus Interaction, Coinfection, and Laboratory Diagnosis in the MENA Region: An Update.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2019Review
- Persistence of hepatitis B surface antibody and immune memory to hepatitis B vaccine among medical college students in Madinah.Annals of Saudi medicineArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesTo evaluate the prevalence of occult hepatitis B viral infections (OBIs) among blood donors considering the clinical and epidemiological importance of identifying OBIs.
methodsA cross-sectional study conducted at King Khalid University Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between January 2011 and January 2012. Blood donors (n=8501) were screened for Hepatitis B virus surface antigen (HBsAg) and hepatitis B core antibodies (HBcAb). All HBsAg-negative and HBcAb-positive samples were tested further for hepatitis B surface antibodies (HBsAb), hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA, and HBV genotyping.
resultsOf the 8501 serum samples tested, 56 (0.7%) were positive and 8445 (99.3%) were negative for HBsAg. Among the HBsAg-negative samples, 198 (2.3%) were positive for HBcAb and these patients were suspected to have OBIs. Among the HBcAb-positive samples, 119 (60.1%) were positive while 79 (39.9%) were negative for HBsAb. Analysis of HBV-DNA for the suspected OBIs showed that 17 out of 198 samples (8.6%) yielded positive results, and all of them were HBsAb-negative. The viral load was low (less than 20-186 IU/mL) in all OBIs. Hepatitis B virus genotyping showed that 15 out of 17 samples (88.2%) were genotype D, and the other 2 samples (11.8%) were genotype E.
conclusionThe prevalence of OBIs among blood donors in Riyadh was 0.2%. Therefore, it is recommended that HBV molecular testing should be incorporated with serological assays for screening of blood donors.
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